It’s well worth celebrating the gift of freedom, while praying for those who don’t have it, and taking time to be intentionally grateful.

And, by the way, it does seem to me that an important part of freedom is being able to make space for fun and laughter. It’s needed in this world. More than ever.

Because. You know. Both fun and laughter is last on the list for so many. In a weird way, it helps to refocus and see the gift of living in the midst of all the stuff that needs managing. The hard of life so easily takes everything over, making life barely doable, leaving little space for anything else. Sometimes the hard makes it clear there needs to be a gigantic change.

I’ve had to go back to the basics at least a million times, peeling back the unnecessary, simplifying all that I can by taking away the things that really don’t matter in the end, intentionally fine tuning the state of my life with the things that do matter.

All of this is more powerful than ever, when we commit to do it together. I mean. Life is better with one another.

So. Our family made space for one another this weekend to celebrate 4th of July and mostly one another. Simple. Meaningful. Happy days. We talked, shared easy meals, made terrariums on our porch, played, took long walks, went to the farm down the road, and attended church together.

May you know the joy of simple celebrations–Kerrie

Some glimpses of our family’s weekend celebration (please note we did not have pictures that turned out well of Troy, Drew, Gregg, and I–sigh):

Pizza for the ones who came early!Waiting for the cousins–snack included.I mean. Why can’t a one-year-old check his cousins ETA?Madelyn made blueberry pie for the family!We love life happening on the front porch. We made terrariums.Just. Fun.Finishing touches.Finished the project!What’s next?These four. Sweet. Fun. Active. (See the bins of toys in the background–BUSY!)Checking out the three pigs at the farm. What do you think?Uncle Timmy once again is determined that his nieces can “play” a blade of grass and sound off like a trumpet.We ended our time together at Spaghetti Factory–laughing–Tim plus a spoon.